You know, I miss the restaurant, it was simple there. You completed honest work, finished your day and felt the satisfaction of a good day? But this, this is dirty and wrong... there is no honour here.
- Kodo and Mimsi reflect on the toll the recent state of the Monastery of Flowers and the toll the investigation has taken on them.
Kodo and Mimsi begun the day with the realisation that Thordak,
Daedric Marx and the remaining Petals were missing from the monastery. Before committing to a search, the pair displayed concern that Elder Caste had acted too quickly on the limited evidence given and they decided it was worth gathering the remaining party members and finding out what they could about what had happened to Thordak and the remaining Petals.
With that, Persicorum were gathered and, after learning that
Master Tyrin Denorth, the master of the Kensei monk school, was not present to teach that day and instead had sent in a deputy to work for him. The group decided to split up and look for clues. With Mimsi and Fen teaming up to ask guards on the wall what they saw, Kodo and Olympia moving to speak to Tyrin's deputy to find out why the monk wasn't present and Anastasia splitting from the party to trail Asharra.
- Firstly, Fen and Mimsi visited the wall and targeted two tired-looking guards who had clealry been on a night shift in the Monastery, after first asking politely and not being given an honest answer (with Mimsi figuring out the guards were clearly lying) the pair tried challenging the monks to a challenge before finally threatening to piss on the walls of the monastery if they did not comply. Eventually the guards relented and were given a simple challenge, knock Mimsi off of the wall. Failing to do so (with Mimsi using her psionic skill to give herself the upper hand in dodging the guard) led the guards to admit to the pair that they saw a team of monks take Thordak and Daedric Marx into the inner sanctum in the middle of the night btu they were instructed to act as though they saw nothing.
- Kodo and Olympia made their way towards the kensei teacher, with Olympia floating the idea that she impersonate a kensei monk sent to cover the class to receive information... this idea was realistically put down by Kodo who pointed out Olympia's clear lack of monk skill by asking her to steal a pebble from his hand; a challenge beyond Olympia's skill it seemed as she admitted the plan may not work and they instead waited for the teacher to finish the lesson before they learned that Tyrin had set the work early this morning as he was allegedly ill and bed-bound for the day.
- Anastasia stalked Asharra and watched her finish training aspirants before moving to the lunch hall where she told a group of her friends that 'he will not last much longer here now that I'm done working on him' Anastasia then followed Asharra into the inner sanctum of the monestary before watching her unlock a door leading down to a basement, Anastasia decided to return to the party rather than attempt to open the door and follow Asharra.
With the party back together they discussed what to do next and found they had no real answer, with Kodo especially frustrated and lamenting the lack of trust within the monastery. Eventually, the group decided to visit
Temperance again to receive an outside opinion from a monk they could trust.
Temperance welcomed the party into his home and finally got to make introductions with Olympia, during this time he had a heart to heart with Kodo and agreed with the firbolg's plan to go to the kitchens and make soup for Tyrin Denorth as a pretense to check out his room. With Kodo completing his own errand, the party bemoaned the state of the monastery to Temperance who reluctantly agreed that the community had become corrupted and toxic thanks to new recruits (he especially cites Asharra and her ideals around what makes a 'real' monk as a reason for the struggles of the monastery), when the party discussed Thordak and his possible location they remembered that Thordak was likely incriminated by the ring depicting the symbol of the petals that Asharra gave the barbarian a couple of days ago. The party discussed the idea of going to elder Caste with the claim that Asharra planted the evidence to frame Thordak but they decided that would simply lead to it being their word against Asharra's (an argument they would likely lose). In response to this, Temperance explained the rules of dueling outside the judgement gate and explained that if a monk were to challenge Asharra to a duel she would be honour bound to accept and honestly answer the party's questions if defeated. The group immediately nominated Mimsi to fight Asharra due to her fighting prowess but also due to the personal ties they have and the message it would send to the monastery if a goblin could defeat Asharra in monastery combat. This plan made Mimsi exceptionally nervous and panicked at the thought of failure and so the group began to plan how to approach this combat (especially once it was discovered there were no rules stating you couldn't use magic on another BEFORE the fight started).
While the rest of the group planned, Kodo visited the kitchens of the Monastery and asked his old friend and teacher
Delthea for the chance to use their kitchen which Delthea embraced on one condition; they ensure the meal is of a good enough quality to be sent to Tyrin and, if it was, Kodo would share his recipe with them. It goes without saying that Kodo cooked an outstanding meal that Delthea allowed and insisted he share with them in the future.
Visiting the inner sanctum, Kodo went into Tyrin's room and discovered (without much shock) that Tyrin was not there and, upon asking Elder Caste, saw that she was surprised by this development. Frustrated, Kodo rejoined the party and, when told of their plan to challenge Asharra, he fully supported the idea and joined the group in confronting Asharra and challenging her publicly.
Mimsi found Asharra in the food hall and challenged her publicly, something that the master of the sun soul school seemed to relish, insisting that her terms of this duel were that, if Mimsi loses, the goblin would be forever exiled from the Monestary of Flowers. Accepting these terms, Asharra turned to prepare for their battle on the judgement gate in one hours time.
The party prepared themselves and gave Mimsi some final words of encouragement and advice before moving towards the judgement gate to begin their duel. During this walk, Anastasia agreed with Olympia that, during the battle, she would be turned invisible so she could search Asharra's room for evidence whilst the monestary is distracted.
On approach, Mimsi found herself standing on the bridge opposite her nemesis, Asharra as Elder Caste presided over the battle. During the preparation, the rest of the party spotted two of Asharra's allies prepare a scroll containing a spell to cast before the fight started as well. Acting quickly as the monks bowed to one another and prepared, Fen cast haste and fire shield on Mimsi to give you a magical advantage whilst Olympia waited to use dispel magic on the other groups scroll as they cast it, removing haste from Asharra and stunning her for a round as a result.
The fight started with Mimsi pushing her advantage and punishing Asharra early on by disarming the tiefling and aiming for her injured leg to slow the monk down and causing them serious damage before they could recover from their stunned state. During the beginning stages of the fight the crowd were firmly on Asharra's side despite their misgivings about the tiefling clearly using magic to help her fight despite her claims of being a superior monk, in response to this (after helping Anastasia sneak off unnoticed), Kodo and Olympia led a chant supporting Mimsi with the monks who felt outcasted and ousted by Asharra as Fen continually verbally assaulted and attacked Asharra.
Mimsi spent the fight tactically beating back Asharra's assault by mixing her own chaotic style of fighting with lessons in tactics she had learned from her allies, eventually dominating Asharra (despite her being the superior martial artist) and controlling the battle as the tiefling was forced to resort to ranged combat that carried the fight onto the lake water as Mimsi relentlessly assaulted Asharra. Eventually, bloodied and beaten down, Asharra submitted to Mimsi and lost the duel and admitted to planting the ring on Thordak, in response to this Caste charged Asharra with the crime of killing Elder Tai Shan and trying to frame the innocent to protect herself before leaving the bridge with the majority of other monks and insisting Mimsi and Kodo meet her this evening to discuss recent events. The party then noted how the monks of the monastery looked on Mimsi and the rest of Persicorum with a new-found respect. Taking this moment of quiet, Mimsi approached Asharra; who was sobbing on the bridge where she was defeated, and attempted to make amends but only elicited an angry response from Asharra who simply said 'she'll kill you and then she'll kill me' before walking away towards the mountains and leaving the rest of the party who decided to move off and relax in Mimsi's old shelter (with Fen scrubbing out the slur on the wall with a dagger) as they waited for Anastasia to return.
Anastasia used the duel between Mimsi and Asharra to enter the inner sanctum and (using a dagger in lieu of thieves tools) unlocked the door to Asharra's room and searched it as quickly as she could. Anastasia recovered another vial of the purple poison from behind Asharra's wardrobe as well as a strange metallic canister stored there, she also found a drawing of Asharra and Caste walking hand in hand through the monastery fields in Tai Shan's cartoonish drawing style with the words 'I have been watching' written on the back of the card. She then found a chest containing a bag filled with 150 gold pieces, several ball gowns and a pile of letters from
Ariks Zenkei that Anastasia pocketed before sneaking back down to the inner sanctum as she heard Elder Caste approaching. Taking a look at the leader of the monastery as she was leaving, Anastasia couldn't help but notice that Caste looked more upset by how things had turned out than she expected.
As she reached the party, they discussed what Anastasia had discovered as well as Asharra's cryptic words to Mimsi. They decided to read through the letters to Asharra and learned that they were all from her father, asking the young woman to return home and become the head of the family rather than continuing to 'rebel' from her parents wishes with the monastery. The party noted how the letters were written with very little love and more emphasis on Asharra's duty to her family. Kodo then read one of
Long-Stride's letters to him, a letter expressing that Long-Stride did not like how the monastery treated Kodo leaving, revealing that Kodo's things had been kept and maintained even 7 months after he left the monastery as though they were acting like he was still going to return. Again at a loss, the party decided to visit
The King and confronting him with what they knew about Asharra and Caste to elicit a response from him before they went to Caste to meet her.
Going to the tavern, the party were greeted warmly and sat down for a game of Pai-Sho with The King, preparing to ask their questions.
Meanwhile, as the events above ground were unfolding, Thordak awoke in his prison cell to see himself sitting opposite Daedric Marx who was still unconscious as a figure watched from the outside. Thordak noticed the room was brightly illuminated in order to stop Daedric Marx from accessing his skills as a shadow monk. After entering a rage and trying to break out of the chains (and failing) Thordak woke up Daedric and, after bemoaning his terrible luck (and failing to break out of the chains a second time), they decided to quickly knock one of the torches from it's pedestal, allowing a section of the room to be filled with darkness that Daedric teleported into (though the loud sounds drew the attention of the guard outside who quickly started to unlock the cell) Daedric was not strong enough or quick enough to unlock Thordak's chains so instead promised he would fetch Persicorum to help Thordak before he teleported out of the cell. Thordak watched as Elder Tyrin Denorth entered the cell and saw Daedric was gone so threw in a familiar gas canister that released a pink gas, knocking Thordak unconscious once more.
The party visited the King and confronted him with what they have learned, to which King revealed he could not speak out against Caste but he found the evidence extremely concerning, with that in mind, Anastasia resolved to find Asharra in the mountains to learn some more in the hopes the monk has calmed down and was more forthcoming by now.
Learning only little pieces of information, Kodo and Mimsi resolved to meet Caste in the inner sanctum despite knowing it was likely a trap. Fen and Olympia decided to stay in the tavern unless they received further instruction and so they embraced a rare chance to relax with one another.
As Kodo and Mimsi left the tavern, they saw Daedric Marx, crouched low and clearly exhausted, waiting for them. He explained that there was a basement in the inner sanctum that was where Thordak was being kept prisoner with Tyrin watching him. Daedric explained that he had unlocked the door to escape but he could not face Tyrin or Caste as he was and so he was going to find the Petals but offered to help Persicorum first as he felt guilty for leaving Thordak behind... Kodo and Mimsi refused his help and asked him to find the petals and ensure their safety first. With that, Daedric vanished from sight and quickly moved away from the Monastery.
With the rest of the party either waiting at the tavern or moving towards Elder Caste, Anastasia tracked down Asharra sitting at the edge of a mountain, within sight of the Monastery. Trying to empathise with her, Asharra explained that she knew about Asharra's father and her desire to be more, as well as her commitment to Caste. This empathy led Asharra to reveal that she could not leave the monastery and knew she would return tomorrow to face judgement as she could never face the idea of leaving.
Anastasia was intrigued by this and worked out that Asharra was an accomplice of Caste, committing the deeds she had done only to impress the last remaining elder of the monastery in return for success and satisfying her ambitions to 'be someone' at the monastery. After this, Asharra revealed that Caste had planned all of this up to now and that Kodo and Mimsi were walking towards their deaths as Caste was going to remove them. The leader of the monastery would suffer no one to ruin her isolation and so she intended on killing Kodo and Mimsi and blaming it on Persicorum so that she could remove them as a final threat to her isolation... Asharra also revealed that Caste knew the party were hoping to make the monastery allies in the battle against
Dashilla the Dark Queen and would never allow that to happen. With that, Anastasia instructed Blackey to reach Kodo and Mimsi as fast as possible to stop them before saying farewell to Asharra and making her way down to the Monastery to share her news with the group.
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